Gallipolini of yesterday and today

Mainsen wrote: “Gallipolitanian people are endowed with a beautiful look. The oval of the face recalls the Greek type, the nose regularly falls down to the mouth, which is generally small, nicely cut and provided with very white teeth, little well refined chin, everything gives ancientness to the whole face. The colour, in common men, is generally brown, but animated by a light complexion. Civil people have a candid skin, especially the fair sex. Women have generally beautiful shapes, with rich hair and bright eyes.

In the nearby villages the beauty of Gallipolitanian women is proverbial. They are generally tall, with regular proportions, and very rare malformations. (…) Their development is clearly seen to be rapid so that we can judge a young person when he is just fifteen years old. Young women have a very early development; they reach puberty from 12 to 14. The most well-off belong to the former age. The population of Gallipoli is lively, cheerful, respectful, honest, frugal and lover of strangers, owing to the fact that, being generally devoted to business, they are always in constant opportunity to deal with them “.
And if Mainsen recognized to the people of Gallipoli excellent aesthetic qualities, no less is expected of their artistic and intellectual skills.
Gallipoli, therefore, boasts about many people who have given and stil give honor and prestige to the letters and the arts in general or have stood out for their initiative and courage.
At the end of the last century, in a period tormented by unrewarding historical vicissitudes, Ernesto Barba wrote: “In these times of ancient errors and corruption, of sudden catastrophes (…) is of great comfort for men of intellect and heart, to think that something noble and uncorrupted eternally remains in the world. And for those born in Gallipoli, the home of Crispo and Briganti, Coppola, Presta, Mazzarella (and we must also add Antonietta De Pace, Emanuele Barba, Carlo Rocci Cerasoli, Franza, Rossi, Forcignanò and many others), the observation that, through the miseries and the blatant and fratricidal little wars of the present time, something still lives among us, and precisely the memory of the city virtues, is not only comfort, but also hope for better times (E.Barba, Writers and eminent men of Gallipoli, 1895).

This column, a journey between past and present, talks about the Gallipolitanians of the past and of the present time, giving “memory” and “conscience” of those who distinguished themselves and distinguished themselves for talents and qualities such as to make them an integral part and heritage of a community .
Gallipoli has given birth to many people who, for art, science, culture and politics, have come to the attention of posterity and are particularly reported in studies of art and history. The list would be very long and in fact unfeasible here. Among them all, stand out the biographies of: